No Open House This Year
needs some trimming done
I decided early
this year to not have an open house, and I am sure most of my regular followers
have noticed that this year. Also I am trying to clean the greenhouse out,so I have
been selling trees and planting trees and shrubs in an effort to accomplish this
task. I am looking at maybe taking up a couple of different projects in regards
to what I am going to do with the greenhouse after that. Today I will go in to
further discussion about all that and how it relates to my future plans.
the lace vine already this year
Starting plants
for the spring gardening season is a tough sell and I am up against the big box
gardening centers at Walmart, Lowes and Home Depot. They can produce, or better
yet their subs can produce plants at such low prices and be able to afford the
variety and one stop shopping I could never do. I knew this going in to
operating the greenhouse, but I thought that maybe a natural producer of
heirloom seed stock may have a chance, and I am sure it would with proper
advertising, But it also takes the labor necessary to make it happen. Kind of
hard to do by yourself and even harder if you have other things going on. I have
come to the conclusion I just need to forget this for now and concentrate on
things I can do by myself, that doesn’t require a lot of effort and can provide
me a return for my labor and time. That itself is going to be a hard thing to
find.
trumpet vine is taking off too.
As far as the
greenhouse goes I have several options
as I see it. I can just let it sit and use as I see fit to support myself and
family in whatever way that may be. Number two would be to rent it out to
someone who has the interest to make a go of it and raise vegetables and plants.
They may be able to contact a local restaurant and grow greens and lettuce to
make fresh salads, or tomatoes, or just do whatever they think would be best. The
worse part of this idea is that there is no real retail spot that has any
exposure back up in the valley. Also I don’t know how I would like strangers
driving in here and frequenting the greenhouse for someone else.
the little chicky wicky's are growing and soon will be kicked out.
Another option I am
considering is a hydroponics setup with a fish tank and using aqua culture as a
means to fertilize plants and cleanse the water. This seems to have a great
success in a lot of locations now, allowing in effect a double crop of fish and
vegetables from one setup. The greenhouse would also encourage the production
of necessary algae to supplant the nutritional needs of the fish, reducing the
need for commercial fish feed. I need to study this option more and see if it isn’t
something I can get into on a low investment type of business. Not real crazy
about cleaning fish but I am sure if I raised them I could sell whole as there
are a lot of people out there that would gladly clean their own fish. The size
of the greenhouse would allow me to have several tanks and room for plants
also. This could easily be a one man operation.
rhubarb i plan on putting in a bed today
I have thought of
mono cropping it with al strawberries or raspberries in an effort to maximize
production and to use as a buffer against bad weather scenarios where I might
lose most of my outside berry crop. One reason I have never ventured much into
strawberries is at this point in my life is that I already have back trouble
and can hardly see the sense of planting something that makes me bend over so
far. I have thought of converting pallets I have into beds and keeping them up
off the floor and planting full of strawberries thus eliminating the need to
bend over so far to pick. The beds would be on top of pallets and these
elevated on blocks raising the beds to a height of two and half feet and widths
of three feet with 6 inches of soil in the bed. The beds would be lined with
plastic to retain moisture and protect the pallets. A drip irrigation system
would allow consistent watering. I could easily include a fertilization system.
Mulching heavy with straw would keep weeds down and then the only major problem
would be picking and marketing the product.
The nice thing
about berries as a product is that the season doesn’t last that long and after
the harvesting is done; the work is minimal at best till next year. These are
some of the operations I am considering for the greenhouse. I by no means have
any desire to do away with the greenhouse and only hope I can come up with a
winning combination for the greenhouse. Even chickens on a small free range
pasture would be a possibility. Whatever it is, you can bet that the fact that
it is being underutilized for now, will be only temporary.
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